Posts tagged: Mobile Printing

Smartphones have become a ubiquitous part of our daily lives, filling the role of not only a phone, but also a music player, GPS, calculator, calendar, flashlight, voice recorder, clock, camera, and many other functions depending on what apps are installed on it. The camera is one of the most popular functions used on the smartphone and many consumers now use a smartphone as their primary camera. In the InfoTrends 2014 U.S. Photo Merchandise End-User Survey, over 46% of respondents said the smartphone was the type of digital camera used most often, which was more popular than digital point & shoot cameras at just under 33%.

After providing an overview of HP’s new enterprise inkjet series, discussing its positioning and key features, and explaining its cost benefits, I will address the experience of using one of the models in our office. Over the last few weeks, my colleagues and I have tested the Officejet Enterprise X585z MFP, the top-of-the-line model in the series. While our office is not necessarily the size of an “enterprise” or large business (fewer than 50 people work regularly out of the Boston-based headquarters), our print volumes are likely in sync with the device’s recommended page volume of up to 6,000 pages per month.

The HP Officejet Enterprise X585z MFP in our office

We are not a testing company, but I believe our experience can be instructive as it represents a real-world trial of the device. Like most businesses, we have certain requirements and preferences for our printouts/scans/etc., and are able to evaluate how well the X585z meets our requirements. Read more »

HP is targeting its new page-wide business inkjet series towards the “enterprise,” which the company defines as “large” organizations with solutions needs around manageability, security, extensibility, etc. In addition, HP suggests the devices are intended for groups of 5 to 15 users who print up to 6,000 pages per month.

Positioning of new HP Officejet Enterprise X series

The new Officejet Enterprise X line incorporates features and functionality that go beyond the capabilities of the Officejet Pro X series, including more robust scanning, embedded OCR, a pull-out keyboard, a larger touchscreen, customizable job shortcuts, full solutions capability, and a secure hard disk. It is clear these features were included with the needs of larger businesses in mind.

However, the positioning of these devices as “enterprise” is likely something that is going to prove subjective, especially as the definition of “enterprise” often varies from one vendor to another. Read more »

Best Buy acquired mindShift in 2011 for $167 million. The strategy at the time was to use mindShift to break into cloud services and target more SMBs. Â Best Buy was focused on developing a services business and the thought was that with the combination of mindSHIFT’s cloud, data center and professional services would allow the two companies capture a greater share of the $40 billion small and mid-sized business MSP market. Paul Chisholm, chairman and CEO of mindSHIFT at the time in 2011 stated of the acquisition by Best Buy, “We are very closely aligned with Best Buy in both corporate vision, and in our culture of integrity, customer value and results.”

That was then, this is now, and the current reality for Best Buy is to leverage an asset (mindSHIFT) and go back to doing what made them great and focus on their core. Â Bottom line, this is a good/needed move for Best Buy after a disappointing 2013 that was capped off by a holiday price war with Amazon where it lost badly. Read more »

Over the last year there have been countless announcements related to new mobile phones, tablets, and apps for personal and business use alike.

While the majority of these announcements have nothing to do with printing, there have still been a fair number of developments in the mobile printing realm (mobile printing is defined as sending or initiating a print job using a mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet).

Those paying attention (myself included) will have noticed that new features have been added to mobile printing apps, including support for more printer models, file types, and print settings, and that more mobile operating systems are now compatible with these apps.

Both the Android and iOS versions of Epson’s iPrint app, for instance, now support the printing of Microsoft Office documents.

Epson iPrint App Interface

These are certainly positive developments in terms of making mobile printing accessible to more users, as well as more practical.

That being said, the need for a dedicated print app to print from a mobile device is not ideal. Read more »

Whenever I receive an e-mail on my iPhone that needs to be printed I mark it as unread and hope I remember to look at my e-mail that night on my computer. I occasionally forget to print these documents, so I decided to see if it was possible to print directly from my iPhone. As it turns out, there are a lot of options for people who wish to print from their smartphones, tablets, and other e-mail enabled devices, but some of these applications come from unexpected sources. Read more »